jaspercrane

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I thought I would share my recent experience picking up my Taycan in Richmond, VA followed by an immediate road trip to southwest North Carolina. I have seen another thread or two on similar topics and wanted to share my thoughts in case they are helpful to anyone. I got Gentian Blue with body kit package and black interior with silver accents and carbon fiber package. I really like the combination.

The pros of the car are obvious... amazing looks, acceleration, and handling. I also really like the interior - it is not as good as the Panamera I traded in, but the curved screen is awesome (btw, the Panamera feels like a horse and buggy after driving the Taycan ha). The Taycan is unbelievably fun to drive not only on the interstate, where a push of the accelerator boosts you past anyone else - even in range mode, but also on the curvy mountain roads where we are now (Blue Ridge Parkway area). Definitely a great first drive! The engineering and build quality is top-notch - can't believe it is a 5000lb machine going around the corners and punching the "gas."

The cons I have found are: 1) I planned my route to stop at 3 Electrify America stations for fast charging - Greensboro NC, Hillborough NC, and Asheville NC. Only Asheville had working 350kw chargers - the others only had 150kw working and took 40 mins to charge. 2) To use the Porsche Navigation, it forces you to base your range on its very conservative estimates. I had to switch to Google maps to make it to 2 of the 3 Electrify America stations above as the Porsche Nav insisted on me making a U-turn and spending 5 HOURS charging at a level 1 or level 2 station to make it to Electrify America. That was frustrating. 3) The PCM is a downgrade from the Panamera and is clunky and slow... I was really looking forward to a PCM 3 years newer, but it somehow took a downgrade. I imagine this is due to Porsce taking a loss selling these cars now, and they are saving costs anywhere they can outside the driving experience (interior, electronics, etc.). As with all PCM I have seen, there are also many items buried deep in sub-menus, and it drives me crazy that the "next" button does not go to the next preset/favorite for the radio. This is the only car I have driven that "next" takes you to the literal next station - at least make it an option to go to your next fave (maybe just a pet peeve of mine that no one else cares about!). 4) After a few days of ownership, my main screen would not turn on for about 12 hours - only the curved dash and the lower screen. Eventually it turned back on, but that was not fun after only having the car a few hundred miles. My rep thinks maybe my car was mid-OTA update which caused it to not turn on- we are in the NC mountains with horrible cellular data and wifi.

All in all it is a great car, and hopefully OTA updates can fix a lot of the items above. I am very happy with the purchase.

I would also recommend adding the $0 option of the 25ft extension cable (which I did not do but wish I had now that I own the car), and FYI to sign up for free charging at Electrify America you need the "Charging America" app, which you link your online Porsche account to.

Porsche Taycan Turbo Pickup in VA and 450 mile road trip to southwest NC - experience and feedback IMG_1367
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nsheth_ahimsa

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Thanks for sharing! Car looks gorgeous and I like the blue lights option. Any shots of the interior?
 

JayGT4

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Great read and feedback, thanks for sharing! And congrats on the new ride. One thing I've always thought when reading these great delivery trip reports is that it's awesome how there's no break-in period needed! So we get immediate feedback from owners on acceleration and performance. :rock:
 

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Thanks for sharing! Car looks gorgeous and I like the blue lights option. Any shots of the interior?
Yes, if you have any more shots of the blue lights in daytime or night time, that'd be great.
 

PanameraFrank

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Great review!

As for charging, yes, people should be prepared for 30 min to an hour charging stops. Period. Sadly the charging speed is overhyped due to the best case scenario vs reality having a massive gap.

I agree with the PCM comments from my time testing Taycans. I'm guessing they had to use a new system for all their EV needs but it isn't as clean & smooth as the Panamera PCM.
 


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jaspercrane

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Here are a few extra pics I just took of interior and exterior/headlights. It’s raining in the mountains today... I found the Asheville 350kw charger for be as fast as advertised... my problem was when they just weren’t working at the other 2 stops!

Porsche Taycan Turbo Pickup in VA and 450 mile road trip to southwest NC - experience and feedback 033FCB42-F55C-4789-921C-E2B42E8EF760


Porsche Taycan Turbo Pickup in VA and 450 mile road trip to southwest NC - experience and feedback 960A4DE1-1137-4FC2-AACE-DD5C0301789B


Porsche Taycan Turbo Pickup in VA and 450 mile road trip to southwest NC - experience and feedback C19CE5FF-F7BD-4712-9489-D330F1E3FE6E


Porsche Taycan Turbo Pickup in VA and 450 mile road trip to southwest NC - experience and feedback 7B332163-C7CA-43E1-B847-BF1EA821D53E
 
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jaspercrane

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cool writeup, thanks.
I will be doing something similar - picking up elsewhere and driving 400 miles home.
Awesome. It was such a fun way to start ownership. Just prepare yourself for some charging snafu’s and wait time... Worth it though!
 


dnanian

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The PCM is a downgrade from the Panamera and is clunky and slow
I agree: I don't want to call out the "older" Panamera as a paragon of design and usability, but it is faster and more functional than the one in the Taycan, which I think is bizarre.
 

TriTaycan

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. 3) The PCM is a downgrade from the Panamera and is clunky and slow... I was really looking forward to a PCM 3 years newer, but it somehow took a downgrade.
ugh, this sounds really bad. a new infotainment system, which I assumed would be top notch, was half the reason I’m buying a new car at all. Do others agree with this? I’ll hate the car if it’s a latency nightmare. I’d honestly think about just bailing and buying something completely different ... my car is supposed to arrive in 2wks.
 
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jaspercrane

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ugh, this sounds really bad. a new infotainment system, which I assumed would be top notch, was half the reason I’m buying a new car at all. Do others agree with this? I’ll hate the car if it’s a latency nightmare. I’d honestly think about just bailing and buying something completely different ... my car is supposed to arrive in 2wks.
Clunky and slow is probably a bit harsh. It is still a good system, but I 100% stand behind it being worse than the 2017 Panamera.
 

TriTaycan

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Clunky and slow is probably a bit harsh. It is still a good system, but I 100% stand behind it being worse than the 2017 Panamera.
‘are some of the issues lessened if you are using CarPlay?
 

PanameraFrank

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ugh, this sounds really bad. a new infotainment system, which I assumed would be top notch, was half the reason I’m buying a new car at all. Do others agree with this? I’ll hate the car if it’s a latency nightmare. I’d honestly think about just bailing and buying something completely different ... my car is supposed to arrive in 2wks.
Half the reason you buy a Porsche is for the infotainment system? No offense but you might want to look at a different type of car.

The PCM on the Taycan is fine. It's still in the top half of current infotainment systems and it looks very, very sharp, which is probably the most important thing to me.

Give me a slightly laggier but beautifully integrated touchscreen over a snappy but glued on dash system any day of the week.
 

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One would hope that the performance issues will be ironed out in future software updates. Usually there alot of tweaking that can be done in software.

It was the same with the "new" Volvo XC90 when it launched. Interface was a bit laggy. They managed to solve it in software on the launch car after a while. We even got another boost a couple of years later. On a four year old car. :)

Patience is key I think. They are most probably very aware of all the "small" things that are not top notch.
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